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The Brexit-negotiations between Britain and the European Union aren't going as any of those involved hoped beforehand. Brits feel that the EU is demanding too much money from them, while the EU argues that Britain isn't willing to pay enough for their "privilege" to regain their independence. Apparently, in the monstrous European construction, national sovereignty has to be bought. Although most European leaders and EU officials feel that they might be able to get Theresa May to back down, they believe there's one major problem. His name? Boris Johnson. Johnson is Britain's secretary of state. He was also one of...

Germany celebrates its first gay marriages on Sunday as same-sex unions become legal after decades of struggle, but campaigners say the battle for equal rights isn't over yet.Wedding bells will ring out in Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover and other German cities where local authorities will exceptionally open their doors on a Sunday to allow gay couple to say "I do" on the day the law comes into effect. Bodo Mende, 60, and his partner Karl Kreile, 59, who have been together since 1979, will be the first to tie the knot in the German capital. "It will be an emotional but...

Catalan leader Carles Pulgdemont says the region has won the right to statehood following Sunday's referendum which was marred by violence. He said the door had been opened to a unilateral declaration of independence. Hundreds of people were injured as Spanish police used force to try to block voting. The Spanish government had pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country's constitutional court........

Two men have become the first gay couple to marry in Germany, on the day gay marriage became legal there. Karl Kreile and Bodo Mende, a couple for 38 years, exchanged their vows at the town hall in Schöneberg, Berlin. Registry offices in several German cities were opening, unusually, on Sunday to allow couples to wed on the first day it was legally possible. Getting married will give gay couples the same tax advantages and adoption rights as heterosexual couples. Germany has allowed same-sex partners to enter into registered partnerships since 2001, but these did not give couples exactly the...

BERLIN • Germany has asked the U.S. military for classified data on two Boeing fighter jets as it looks to replace its aging Tornado warplanes, giving a potential boost to the U.S. company locked in a trade dispute with Canada and Britain. A letter sent by the German defense ministry's planning division, reviewed by Reuters, said it had identified Boeing's F-15 and F/A-18E/F fighters as potential candidates to replace the Tornado jets, which entered service in 1981. Both fighters are made in St. Louis. A classified briefing is expected to take place in mid-November, following a similar briefing provided by...

Criminal statistics in Germany have shown that asylum seekers are suspects in rape and sexual assault cases at a rate higher than their representation in society as a whole. Experts discuss the problem. The Bavarian interior ministry released figures earlier this month showing that 11 percent of all suspects in sex crimes in the first half of 2017 were people who had come to Germany seeking asylum. This followed national figures from 2016 which showed that reported rape and sexual assault rose by 12.8 percent compared to the previous year. Of the 6,476 total suspects over 800 were asylum seekers,...

More than 500 underage asylum seekers went missing in Switzerland in 2016, a huge rise on the previous year’s tally of 94, according to official statistics reported by RTS. In total, around 5,000 unaccompanied migrants aged under 18 at the time of arrival currently live in Switzerland, said the broadcaster, quoting the Swiss migration office (SEM). However, after saying they want to claim asylum, many then flee the official reception centers and disappear from the authorities’ radar.In total, 539 young migrants went missing in 2016 — a figure that includes 81 who were aged over 18 but who are counted...

Germany’s leading economic institutes have raised their joint forecast for Europe’s biggest economy to grow by 1.9 percent this year and 2.0 percent in 2018, both unadjusted for calendar effects, informed sources said on Tuesday. The improved growth outlook compared with the institutes’ previous estimates of 1.5 percent for 2017 and 1.8 percent for 2018, two people familiar with the figures told Reuters. The German economy last year grew by 1.9 percent, which was the strongest rate in half a decade. The institutes are expected to publish their joint forecast on Thursday.

Merkel’s bizarre rise from East German apparatchik to CDU/CSU leader has never made any sense, and comparisons to The Manchurian Candidate are common. It’s like a duller, but even more cynical Al Gore somehow got the GOP nomination for the presidency. Diminished by the election results or not, and with the socialist SDP ruling out a coalition government, Merkel is supposed to be forming a new government with the Free Democrats and the Greens -- the AfD supposedly being too controversial to be asked to participate.

A day after the extreme right-wing party Alternative for Germany became the third-largest in the parliament, one of its leaders questioned whether the country's national interests include Israel's existence.

Four AfD deputies from the Mecklenburg-Vorpommerschen Landtag left their faction - and founded a new one.

This appeared on Twitter and YouTube. These migrants pull this all over Europe - this time they found a car with some Polish guys in it. POLSKA!

On Saturday night, at the end of a speech on immigration, I was asked by a lady in the audience about Sunday's impending election in Germany. She had met a young Teutonic chappie who said he was voting for Angela Merkel, and she couldn't understand why. And I said that Frau Merkel was certain to win the election, but what would be important to watch would be the respective strengths of the losing parties: my questioner's chum was voting Merkel because he feared the rise of the "far right" - ie, AfD, Alternative für Deutschland - but I suggested that...

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The nationalist Alternative for Germany was hit by party infighting Monday, just hours after winning its first seats in parliament, with its co-chief Frauke Petry declaring that she won’t join its Bundestag group. Citing “dissent” with more hardline colleagues, Petry dropped her bombshell at a morning party press conference, catching other key AfD figures by surprise as she abruptly left the room. The spectacle played out before the media put the spotlight on the tug-of-war within the party between radical and more moderate forces at the top, and raised questions on how far right it planned to position itself. Although...

Just one day after her party’s success in the German federal elections yesterday (September 14), Frauke Petry, co-chair of far-right party Alternative for Germany, said she would not be part of the parliamentary group. Petry’s surprise announcement after the far-right AfD won around 13 percent of the vote in Germany’s elections, an historic result meaning that the party would not only enter parliament for the first time but also as the third strongest party. The news appeared to come as a shock to her colleagues, with fellow co-chair Jörg Meuthen telling German press agency dpa, that he “had had no...

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she wants to win back the voters who deserted her party for right-wing nationalist AfD. Mrs Merkel is set for a fourth term in office, despite heavy losses for her party. She now faces months of coalition talks with several parties in order to form a stable government. After winning its first parliamentary seats, AfD vowed to fight "an invasion of foreigners" into the country. "We want a different policy," co-leader Alexander Gauland said following the historic surge. Mrs Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU alliance recorded its worst result in almost 70 years.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has emerged with the largest party in Germany’s national election but has lost well over a million voters as the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) has come a solid third in the race, beating previous expectations. Ms Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) were always expected to win this year’s German national election but few predicted that the CDU would have its worst electoral showing since 1949. Merkel herself expressed disappointment at the result but vowed to continue to govern Germany, likely with new coalition partners. The Social Democrats (SPD) under former European Union...

Angela Merkel has won a fourth term, but official results have shown she'll have a "tough road" for coalition talks. While the CDU remains the largest party, the far-right AfD will be the third biggest political force. With all 299 constituencies reporting, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the CSU came out ahead in Germany's national election on Sunday, with 33 percent of the vote. Rival Social Democrats (SPD) led by Martin Schulz tumbled to a mere 20.5 percent, while the Green and Left parties remained about the same as they did in 2013,...

--snip-- Addressing her party, Mrs Merkel acknowledged the past four years had been hard. Nevertheless the party had still achieved its aim - to finish first. The cheers rang a little hollow. Because the real success story of this election belongs to AfD. Across the city, in a room filled with blue and white balloons, members of the anti-immigrant, anti-euro party cheered as it became clear they would not only enter the German parliament for the first time, but would be the third-largest party in the Bundestag after Mrs Merkel's conservative CDU and her nearest rivals, the social democratic SPD.